Monthly Archives: April 2014

The following article was posted on April 23rd, 2014, in the Santa Maria Sun – Volume 15, Issue 7

BY CAMILLIA LANHAM

The walk-in cooler at the Food Bank of Santa Barbara County’s Santa Maria facility is filling up slower and moving produce out faster than it has in the past.

This is partially attributable to environmental factors like the drought, Jamie Nichols, food bank director of operations, told the Sun after an April 16 press conference. Farmers’ yields are lower because of the lack of rain, as well as state water delivery issues. Nichols said lower yields up the pressure farmers feel to make their harvests stretch. Those things that characterize a fruit or vegetable as not good enough for grocery store shelves—blemishes and shape—don’t apply this year.

All of those factors add up to the food bank simply not getting produce delivered like it used to.

Nichols said the food bank used to get regularly delivered truckloads of stone fruit, tomatoes, and melons—often for free.

“Those supplies have just been cut off,” Nichols said. “That’s not happening anymore.”
Food Bank Chief Executive Officer Erik Talkin said during the press briefing that produce is in shorter supply and more expensive than it has been in years past. Talkin added that fresh produce is a huge part of the Food Bank’s mission; it’s a necessary part of the food literacy programs offered by the organization, as well as for the health of the people they serve.

“We can’t just switch to frozen or canned vegetables,” Talkin said.

He explained that 55 percent of the Food Bank’s product is fresh produce that’s either bought or donated. Usually, it costs the organization about $1 million a year to bring it in, this year it will cost an additional $200,000.

During the press conference, Nichols said that although the U.S. Department of Agriculture is allocating some emergency funds for programs like the Santa Barbara’s Food Bank, that will only cover 15 percent of the organizations that need it.

“We’re going to need help securing fresh produce,” Nichols said. “It’s important we secure the funds and resources we’re going to need to sustain it.”

EVENT WILL HELP FOODBANK, OTHERS10 hours ago • Erin Lennon / [email protected]The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County will get some welcome donations and assistance Saturday as part of this year’s Central Coast Helping Hands event, which will send volunteers to a number of projects in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Volunteers will collect and sort food donations as well as paint the Santa BarbaraCounty food bank’s 100 collection barrels and repackage bulk foods, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at St. JosephHigh School in Orcutt. Food can also be dropped off and sorted at ArroyoGrandeHigh School.

“The great thing about what’s happening this Saturday is that people will have a venue to come out and help, especially during the drought,” said Darlene Chavez, community leadership manager for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County. “We’re not getting as many donations of fresh produce, and that kind of pinches our wallet a bit.”

As California’s drought continues to drive up produce prices, the food bank’s expenses are expected to increase by $200,000, making it tougher to provide for its clients and its more than 300 nonprofit partners. The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County served more than 100,000 people last year, providing food assistance to one in four county residents.

Helping Hands has also partnered with the San Luis ObispoCounty food bank and the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition.

“Even if people can’t stay and help us sort or do other projects, if they can just drop off food, that’s great too,” said Darren Hulstine, president of the Santa Maria California Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hulstine’s group has hosted the Central Coast Helping Hands event for about eight years.

Organizers have scheduled a number of other projects to keep community volunteers busy both nearby and in San Luis ObispoCounty. Those interested can help with repairs at St. Joseph’s High School, the DunesCenter and the Historic Jail in Guadalupe. Organizers will also send volunteers over to the AbelMaldonadoCommunityYouthCenter to take part in Serve Santa Maria Day, an annual day of local community service.

In San Luis ObispoCounty, participants can help with landscaping and maintenance projects at the Arroyo Grande Women’s Shelter and the ArroyoGrandeCommunityGardens.

For more information, visit centralcoasthelpinghands.org or call 714-2901.

The donation stems from a promotion Santa Barbara Gift Baskets launched in December, featuring a gift basket filled with local gourmet foods.

Twenty five dollars from the sale of each $125 gift basket was collected for donation to the Foodbank to use toward its mission to eliminate hunger by providing food, education and other resources to a network of hunger-relief charities in Santa Barbara County.

Each Foodbank Holiday Gift Basket included a card that informed the recipient that their gift consisted of not only the delicious treats nestled inside, but also a donation of $25 to the Foodbank.

According to the Foodbank, for every $1 it receives as a donation, it is able to purchase $17 worth of food. That translates to $425 worth of food per gift basket purchased, and more than $35,000 for the entire donation.

The Foodbank was not the only organization benefiting from the sale of the basket. Fourteen local businesses were represented among the gourmet contents. Every dollar spent on the Foodbank Holiday Gift Basket stayed right here in Santa Barbara County, supporting the local economy as well as its most needy residents.

Several local businesses chose to send the Foodbank Holiday Gift Basket as their client appreciation gift this year, including Heritage Oaks Bank, Best Western of Carpinteria, and Penfield & Smith Engineers.

“We chose the Foodbank Holiday Gift Basket this year to share a taste of the wonderful local items with some of our clients, both near and far, as well as to do something good for our community,” said Julie Miller of Penfield & Smith. “Supporting local business and giving back is integral to building and maintaining great communities like Santa Barbara. We are proud to have been a part of it.”

The Foodbank Multi Chamber Mega Mixer will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Foodbank warehouse at 4554 Hollister Ave. Members and guests of the following Chambers of Commerce will participate in this free networking event: Santa Barbara Region, Goleta Valley, Carpinteria, Buellton, Solvang, Lompoc, Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo and the Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber.

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County helps those who need help putting food on the table.

“The majority of people who we serve are working”, Foodbank of Santa Barbara County CEO Eric Talkin told reporters at the Foodbank warehouse in Santa Maria, “often people think that the Foodbank provides to homeless people, really they are only about 8 percent of who we serve, the rest are people that are trying to get a job or who are working, so it’s a very challenging environment and people are trying to survive and stay healthy.”

The immediate impact of the ongoing drought in California is starting to be felt throughout the state including front line social safety network agencies like Foodbanks.

“The drought is already having a serious affect on our ability to afford and provide fresh produce to hungry people and to our member network of 300-plus programs and agencies in the county”, Talkin says.

Foodbanks are now having to compete with others in the food industry for staple crops like onions, potatoes, carrots and corn that are down in production due to the drought.

“The largest growing sector is children and youth services”, says Jamie Nichols of the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, “now these are local Boys and Girls Clubs, local YMCA’s, these are programs that are increasingly requesting and wanting more and more produce so this demand for produce goes up with our member agencies our supply is becoming harder and harder to secure both within the county and throughout the state.”

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County welcomes donations of fresh produce.

But it says cash donations are what’s really needed to help it weather the tough economic climate of the ongoing drought.

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